War costs have working class individuals on hook for possible $4 trillion tab

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17 August, 2011 - 09:54 — tatianaK

A study has been released through Brown University regarding battle expenses. The study asserts that the wars America has fought since 2001 could up to trillions of dollars. The final expense of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq may add up to $4 trillion, and might have resulted in the deaths of up to 250,000 people. Article source - Wars cost American taxpayers almost $4 trillion in past decade by Newsytype.com.

All those that lost their lives

According to Reuters, the expenses of war since the 2001 September 11 attacks are being added up by scholars from Brown University. "Costs of War" was the name of the project. The Watson Institute for International Studies released the project. There's a website for the findings, which were compiled by almost two dozen scholars from multiple universities. The study goes off of what Obama said the battle would expense. He said that about $1 trillion would be put into it. It could turn out to be between $3.4 and $4.4 trillion when you count the cost of the Afghanistan and Iraq battles. There were about 250,000 people killed. Al Jazeera reports that the English journal The Lancet, as well as others, was criticized for inaccuracy on death estimates. Still, there were almost 125,000 Iraqi civilians killed during this time, according to states.

The cost of just an interest payment

The interest payments have been very hard for the country to handle with the Bush and Obama administrations borrowing for war. So far, there has been at least $185 billion in payments made. The Reuters news agency, according to CBS, estimates a further $1 trillion will be spent paying down battle debt. The president's quote of $1 trillion for war spending is partially accurate; an estimated $1.3 trillion was appropriated for direct battle spending. Since the Department of Defense has not yet unveiled its battle expenditures, additional expenses are left out of that figure. The amount of cash spent just on veterans who were injured in combat is at $36 billion. By 2050, it might be around $900 billion instead though. Other veteran expenses, and expenses to their families, also have to be paid. That will cost an extra $400 billion. As reported by USA Today, there were 181,000 Iraq and Afghanistan battle veterans receiving disability benefits from the Veterans' Administration in 2008. As of 2006, 947,000 Vietnam vets were receiving comparable benefits.

Final costs not knowable for decades

It will be decades before anyone can even tally up what the finals expenses will be. Aside from costs to American working class individuals, the cost to Iraq and Afghanistan in repairing destroyed infrastructure, caring for people with disabilities and lost income from people who were killed might never be tallied. A 2010 USA Today article explained that the U.S. had already spend $44.6 billion by the end of 2009 in rebuilding Iraq which consists of military and security forces. Rebuilding Afghanistan has cost the United States $19 billion already, as reported by a Foreign Policy article. Opium is one of the few things Afghanistan can make money off of since it is so decimated. In 2010, 92 percent of the opium in the world came from Afghanistan. That amount has not changed much either, states the Guardian.